MIYAKO, Iwate Prefecture--Just like in the old days, when the lights were turned down, the screen came to life, and the audience could forget their troubles, if only for a few hours.
MIYAKO, Iwate Prefecture--Just like in the old days, when the lights were turned down, the screen came to life, and the audience could forget their troubles, if only for a few hours.
"It was the first time I've laughed since the disaster," an audience member told Kazunori Kushigeta, 39, the manager of Cinemarine, the only movie house in the coastal area here, which was damaged by last year's earthquake and tsunami.
Cinemarine theater hosted a free movie screening for the 100th time recently as part of its efforts to entertain and cheer up victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake.
The Miyako-based cinema launched a free screening tour after the March 11 quake and visited assembly halls for residents of temporary housing in Noda village, Rikuzentakata city and elsewhere across the prefecture.
A free screening was held recently in a Miyako hotel, with curtains drawn over all the windows in a small hall. A handmade sign, which read "Ido Eigakan" (traveling movie theater), was put up at the entrance.
In many cases, the screenings attract a dozen or so audience members, usually in their 60s or older.
Sometimes, elderly people excitedly share their memories after they remember the old days when movie theaters were flourishing everywhere.
The commemorative 100th screening session was held under the title of "Taro Eiga Matsuri" (Taro film festival) at two venues in the Greenpia Sanriku hotel in the Taro district of Miyako, showcasing nine films including "The Yellow Handkerchief" and "Pokemon: The Rise of Darkrai."
"(The tour has) deepened our connections with local areas. We want to continue for at least another year," Cinemarine President Masamitsu Onodera, 65, said.
Cinemarine was closed for two weeks after the earthquake. But it received requests from patrons asking for the annual spring showing of the new "Doraemon" anime film, a tradition since 1980. The cinema decided to reopen for the sake of children who had fewer choices for entertainment following the March 11 disasters. TV channels were mainly broadcasting special programs on the disaster.
But at the time, there were a limited number of children who could come to the theater. Kushigeta came up with the idea of taking his movie theater on the road.
However, it costs between 50,000 yen ($639) and 100,000 yen to rent a DVD from a distributor and screen a film for an unspecified number of people. With Cinemarine making little headway in trying to negotiate a lower rental fee, the tour had to wait until the holiday-filled Golden Week in early May was over.
The first screening session was held at the Greenpia Sanriku Miyako hotel, featuring "Toy Story."
Initially, many screenings were held in schools. When the tour visited a junior high school in Otsuchi, curtains were placed over broken windows that had been blown away by strong winds.
After the midsummer obon holidays (a traditional memorial service season), more movies for elderly audience members such as the popular "Tora-san" traveling salesman series, which was filmed between 1969 and 1995, were included in the program. One of the most popular titles was the sixth installment of the fishing comedy series "Tsuribaka Nisshi" (Crazy about fishing). The movie was filmed against the backdrop of Kamaishi in the prefecture, which was hit hard by the tsunami.
Cinemarine initially asked for donations and recruited staff members over the Internet. But after a while, the cinema received support from a national association for small theaters.
Cinemarine is the only co-op movie house in Japan, established in 1997 by the members of a film club.